Spirituality: The Road Less Travelled By Wiese,Christian

Spirituality

Looking for the Road Less Traveled 

Enlightenment doesn’t come through a leader, through a teacher, it comes through understanding ‘what is’, which is in yourself, not running away from yourself.
J. Krishnamurti 

I was in a curious profession with a job to identify market moving events ahead of time in an often unpredictable financial world. Doing this for a couple of decades I had an even more curious observation: those ‘popular’ opinions that were celebrated without end helped our clients very little. Strangely, it was those unpopular, ‘out-there’ views that had the biggest impact. Difficult as it is to communicate this idea, it paid over the decades to be the ugly duckling, always appearing slightly off, but when it truly mattered, being ahead of the competition by a mile.Yet, our high-flying experts didn’t care about this either, they cashed in their quick buck and went on being ‘popular’ somewhere else when the trade they had recommended stopped working.

Remembering this I wondered whether the same could be said about our spiritual community. Maybe our spiritual gurus and bestsellers are popular for the reason that our mind falls in love with their convincing message but otherwise they don’t help anyone getting anywhere on their journey towards breaking free. Maybe it is true what proved to be the case for my prior profession as well, the true liberation only takes place on the road less traveled, not the six-lane highway that everyone wants to travel on.

Consider the many spiritual truisms our community loves emphasizing, ‘be still’, ‘be  mindful’, ‘be your better Self’, ‘be love’, ‘be here and now’, and so forth. How many spiritual bestsellers and self-improvement books have you read? Besides nodding enthusiastically while flipping the pages, did these books really change anything for you? Let’s look at each mandate one by one. ‘Be still’ or ‘be mindful; yes, often our mind slows down captured by the magic of the moment and we can even observe the workings of our mind, but give us one little calamity and all that spirituality goes out of the window. Consider ‘Be your better Self’ or ‘be love’ instead; well, you can try, but let’s also be honest when you run into inner resistance as well. Wrong spiritual ambitions and forced neighborly love are often invites for self-abuse which also doesn’t help anyone. ‘Be here now’ is a great spiritual mandate, but to be honest, everyone benefits from it. Just because we are spiritual doesn’t mean that we are grabbed by the intensity of the moment any more than the fellow next door.

At best, all these spiritual assertions are a bit helpful, but at worst they in fact hurt us. Spirituality can be an escape from what is. We want to experience true love. We mind the competition, the carelessness and evil mindsets. So we hang out with folks who get us and share the memes that promise a better life, yet by doing so, we are running away from ourselves. This is the opposition of what a spiritual journey is all about.

Our so-called enlightened folks cannot tell us anything about the self-demolition course we are are on because they tell us about the beautiful view from the top of the mountain while we are still climbing up the mountain. Only life can put on this self-demolition course. As a matter of fact, life is designed that way for everyone. Just because we have a spiritual mindset doesn’t give us any right to look down on everyone. As I already stressed, sometimes even we spiritual folks who think that we are first will end up last on that journey. We think that we choose a higher vibration life, yet in fact, we are running away from life’s ugliness and challenges, and away from ourselves.

So what exactly is the road less traveled? Embracing life as is and using any occurrence—exhilarating or depressing—as another invite for self-reflection and an opportunity to let go of the past. It is fine to practice meditation; it is important to lead a measured lifestyle that allows the steady expansion of kundalini energy; it is good to become aware of destructive mental loops and the pollyannish dreams. It is useful to discover the power of now, not to mention the importance and beauty of love, but all that does not bring us Home. Only dismantling of the self does this, and only life can do that. As a matter of fact, life is happy to do that for everyone, not just us spiritual folks.

J. Krishnamurti, despite his brilliant insights, has always been a bit vague. I read his works for years while I was a graduate student and it never got me anywhere. What I would add to his introductory claim that enlightenment can only be found in ourselves by facing ourselves with brutal honesty and authenticity, is the observation that life has been designed for all of us to get us to that stage. He commented sometimes on the magic life has to offer, but apparently he was a bit embarrassed talking about it. In my books and writings I call this process ‘the Way’ after Lao-Tzu’s Tao Te Ching. You can find reference to this red thread in life that guides us on our self-dismantling journey in all faiths. The Bible has Palm 23, ‘The Lord is my Shepherd, I shall not want’. Lord Krishna says in the Bhagavad Gita says, ‘All Paths, Arjun, lead to Me’.

Be Your Own Kind Of Beautiful Person

The road less traveled is your path. Look for love and express love as best as you can. Set free your better Self, but be on the lookout for how life and you react as you try to do so. Our mind has a big involvement when it comes to love and the notion of our better Self, and the most important stretch of our spiritual journey is to let the heart reign, not the mind. Accept life, accept yourself, follow your spiritual process and just see what happens. Stop buying books, and stop reading clever notes and memes. It is your time to shine now. Travel the road less traveled and be guided by the best Guide there is, God Herself!